It only seems fitting that on the last year of 2013 that I write an update to my post-travel life. It’s been a while since I’ve continued the saga of my strange journey that began almost two years ago. I know many of you want to know what I have been doing, and ow my adjustment to the “real world” has been. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait another day for those entries, but don’t worry they will come soon enough. I’ve been drafting the entry in my head but you know how the holidays are, busy busy busy.
I can’t believe that one year ago today, I was spending my New Years kayaking the southern bays of Thailand. While I’m in my hometown today, I still feel like a traveler, living out of a suitcase as I’m house sitting for some friends. I can’t believe I started 2013 in Thailand, then India, and then back to Italy. I’ve been home for so long now (7 months), it feels like I’ve been home forever!
2013 has been a funny year for me. While I think I’ve grown tremendously in spirit and strength from my travels, I think perhaps the hardest part was adjusting to life back home. I feel so lucky to have experienced everything that I did this year. Being lost generally has a negative connotation with it, but I think being lost is one of the best things that can happen to people. It’s challenging, humbling, and exhilarating. As I look back on my 2013, I am ever so grateful for everything in my life, that words can’t even express it.
Hopefully some of these memories will inspire you to create a wonderful 2014…I don’t like ranking things because it’s too hard so these will be chronological:
Witnessing and partaking in an Indian Wedding.
Teaching English to Tibetan refugees
Hiking in the Himalayas.
Giacomo and Giulia. Enough said.
Making wine in Italy is amazing, but tasting wine in Sicily is another.
Surprising my Mom for mother’s day, thus completing a life bucket list item of living abroad for at least a year.
I RODE IN THE SOLSTICE PARADE!!
Lots of hiking. Thunder Mountain Lakes was the best.
Hosting my very first benefit concert.
Shooting my first wedding.
Recording backup vocals for the first time ever.
I made it to Texas!
I have so many things to be thankful for this year, words really can’t express it. I say 2013 is the lost year because not having a schedule or a place to be definitely makes you feel that way. But while I may not have led a “normal life” but society’s standards, my life has been amazing and I now that I actually have a job, things will be “coming back to normal” in the best way possible. I was loved, if only for a brief moment, only to be reminded that love actually surrounds me everywhere and its through my family and friends that I am inspired to live my life to the fullest. I may have felt lost for the time being, but things that are lost are only meant to be found again. And I look forward to finding new additions to my life in 2014. So far all I know 2014 will consist of:
- Joining a sailing race team. Perhaps starting a sailing blog?
- More rock climbing adventures
- More food blogging
- Friends, Family, and Fun!
